Her Daughter Died After Taking a Generic Version of a Lifesaving Drug. This Is What She Wants You to Know.

When I first learned that a critical medication for transplant patients — one that keeps them alive — had generic versions that might not be effective, I called a specialty pharmacist at a hospital in Virginia. Adam Cochrane had written a journal article about the problems with the generics. The drug is called tacrolimus, and it keeps a transplant patient’s body from rejecting a donated organ.

I was surprised to hear that Cochrane had several patients he thought had died in part because their generic tacrolimus hadn’t worked right. He told me about Hannah Goetz, though he didn’t divulge her name initially. She would become the focus of a story I published recently that’s part of a larger investigation into how the Food and Drug Administration has for years allowed risky drugs into your med